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Our #1 Feature Request is Launching Soon

We regularly receive messages from users ranging from sweetly inquisitive to somewhat threatening in tone.

“Hi there! I’m lovin the app… Great UI and features. Way better than most paid apps! It would be even more awesome if I could customize the workouts or create my own…”

“You REALLY need the ability to allow the user to edit the default sets and reps. I for instance need a 5 set workout, it is impossible to do at this stage. For now I cannot use this…”

The ability to modify GAIN workouts will soon be in your pocket

We’re excited to announce that the “Modify” feature is in the works, and we have screenshots to show for it!

Upon building a system generated workout, users will be able to click on an “Edit” button, which will reveal options to add/delete/change exercises and circuits, and shift around their order:

We’re adding a clean and simple interface for you to search for, browse or select exercises by bodypart and location/equipment filter:

Users will also be able to click on each exercise to edit the sets, reps and rest:

We expect the new Modify feature to go live within the next 3-4 weeks.

So Why did it take so long?

The short answer is: we’ve been very busy working on other stuff. The longer answer has to do with our vision and the natural tension that exists between personal trainers and exercisers in the real world.

At GAIN, our mission is “to be the most personalized, effective and frictionless way to reach your fitness goals.” Our broader vision is to create a platform for fitness where anyone can access expertise from top trainers in a given fitness specialty to become their “digital personal trainer.”

While it feels like we’re still in the 1st Quarter here at GAIN HQ, it was clear that we needed to develop a really robust and flexible architecture for various trainers (who represent different training styles) to plug into, with the ability to handle a vast array of expert recommended, personalized workout experiences. So, for the past year+, we’ve been working primarily on getting the technical details for that right.

A Natural Tension between Trainers & Trainees

Smart trainers have a logical, science-based rationale for every component in a recommended workout program. From exercise selection and ordering, to sets, reps and rests assignment, to workout and recovery days—it’s all drawn from exercise physiology. Many factors go into building an anatomically balanced, goal-specific, highly efficient workout, and we’ve spent a lot of time to codify that all into flexible recommendation algorithms.

Meanwhile the end-users of these so-called “perfect plans,” exercisers themselves, have various reasons for wanting to tweak the details of their workouts. While some reasons are valid, others are problematic.

Good reasons:

Avoiding injuries

Exercise equipment not available

Lack of ability or confidence

Bad reasons:

Muscle imbalancing (to an unhealthy extreme)

Misconceptions about what’s safe and effective

Avoiding the road to progress / Taking the easier route

For these and other reasons, it’s not surprising that exercisers often call for tweaks, while smart trainers generally insist on “doing the workout as written.”

Have your Protein Shake (and Eat it Too!)

So, while we’ve always been planning to do this, only now that we’ve got a strong, expert-grade foundation in place are we ready to embrace workout mods. In fact, we believe this is a critical element for making our system even better (i.e. more personalized, more effective, more frictionless). We know there’s no perfect expert, and we’re banking that smart users who make tweaks will feed good data back into the system. We’ll eventually build the intelligence to learn from all that data (using machine learning techniques), along with various inputs from other fitness experts, and funnel it back into our recommendation system, so that workout generation improves over time. It all comes back to creating a system that builds the best matched workout program for you, based on your body, goals and schedule.

So that’s the scoop. We hope you enjoy these new features, and we’re excited to continue working with you towards a fitter future where you can truly get the body you want with the time and resources you have. One day, we hope fitness will become as simple as turning on your GPS navigation system and following the audio cues and on-screen guidance to safely and effectively arrive at your desired destination.

7 thoughts on “Our #1 Feature Request is Launching Soon”

I can’t wait for this update. This will Be a welcome addition to the app.

My question is, will you be able to mix the training programs together? Currently I do 20 min of yoga then either lift weights or I do the Road Warrior. If I could somehow combine all 3 into one workout, that would be killer!

Nick, thanks for the reply and the great product. I would love to be able to build a plan that would include all three, but would be happy with singles as well if that is easier to implement.

Additionally, it would be nice to have the option of multiple plans, ie. mon, wed, fri – yoga & weights and tues, thurs, sat – road warrior. I think you could implement it as either one customizable plan or 2-3 individual plans.

Totally second this. I’m looking for having different plans, i.e. weightlifting Monday and Thursday and Yoga Tuesday and Friday (or one plan that combines both). Later on I will definitively combine yoga and weightlifting in the same day workout, but the later is a priority. Meanwhile. I guess I´ll create two Yoga workouts (one for Tuesday, one for Friday) as a workaround. Does it work any different than creating a 2 day/week plan?

Thanks Josh. That’s killer feedback. I’ve used the app that way too (founder Nick here). I might build a 20 Min GAIN workout then a 15 Min Road Warrior, and also do a yoga workout the same day at a different time. As it is now, those are just 3 separate workouts, but it’s only a few separate clicks to fire up each one. Are you looking to integrate those 3 workouts into a single day of a GAIN Plan? Or are you just wanting to track them as a single workout session? Either are good answers, we’ll definitely look into this.